I read something one time not too long ago that said in essence that George Clooney was NEVER YOUNG, but he was NEVER OLD! But, of course, we know that is an impossibility. Some people seem to have always been, or at least acted, OLD, and some think they never get OLD, but even I know I am not “46” any more! (Only one student in my memory ever guessed me to be older than I really was at the time of the “bonus question,” and that was Randy Cannaday, when he was a freshman student in my English I class at FHS, early in the 1970s.)
Yes, I know Mr. Clooney played the part of a young “fixer-upper” in The Facts of Life, but probably more of us don’t remember him until he acted in ER in his mid-30s.
However, in “real life,” he was mostly a BACHELOR, who played “pick-up sports,” was a prankster, rode motorbikes, had strange pets, enjoyed drinking fine spirits, ran around with “fun” people, and never seemed to get any older (born in 1961). He was rather like my Grandpa, who always weighed about 200 pounds, could not be beaten at a card game called “pitch,” was never too busy to fish, and was always 60 or so years of age—in my mind!
George Clooney is an actor, writer, and a director with, according to what I hear many people say, good looks, ability, charisma, and “major league talent.” And, he is related to Abraham Lincoln (also known for his talking ability), however distantly—half-first cousin, five times removed, with the relation going back to Nancy Hanks, Lincoln’s maternal grandmother.
He endured a spinal injury and skull facture so painful and debilitating while filming Syriana that he was leaking spinal fluid out his nose, necessitating 15 days of blood injections and painkillers. He felt problems from this accident for more than 10 years and found it to be a challenge that haunted and changed him.
In 2014, he married Amal Alamuddin, his 2nd wife, and they have two children. It is true that during his “single” years he dated many “special/famous” women—too many to detail fully at this time.
2017-2018, George was the highest-earning actor, even though he had not starred in a major film since 2016. Then, how did he earn all the money? Answer: cofounding and then selling a TEQUILA BRAND for approximately $1 billion (one billion dollars), when he had only invested $600,000 (six hundred thousand dollars).
In 2018, Clooney had a terrible motorcycle accident which launched him at about 70 miles-per-hour, cannon-balled his body out of his shoes, shattered a car’s windshield with his helmeted head, and filled his mouth with shattered glass, which he at first thought were his teeth. He recovered rather quickly due to his “good shape” but no longer plans to ever ride again and maybe never play basketball again!
Clooney also owned a PIG, which had been left behind by his former girlfriend, Kelly Preston. He named it “Max,” and the two of them became a “duo” for quite some time. In fact, George admitted that for close to 20 years, the 300-pound pig was “quite a large part of his life.”
Moving on, George Clooney is the 1st actor to be nominated in six different Oscar categories and is a two-time Oscar winner, be coming one of the most respected professionals in the business today.
1994—ER; 2001—O Brother, Where Art Thou?; 2001—Ocean’s Eleven; 2006—Syriana; 2006—Good Night, and Good Luck; 2008—Michael Clayton; 2010—Up in the Air; 2012— The Descendants; 2013— Argo; 2020—The Midnight Sky.
He owns an Italian villa and reportedly worked quite a number of differing “odd jobs” (giving him much knowledge and experience) before finding what has made him rich.
Some interviewers, who have enjoyed reporting about George Clooney, say that he “makes you feel alive, important, and BIG— an overwhelming feeling.”
Let’s conclude with a reported story by Mr. Clooney. “Yesterday, I taught Alexander to take a piece of banana and chew it up and then spit it into a napkin…..then stand next to his Mom, pretend to blow his nose into it, and look down until Mama looks at it….then eat it. It is just outrageously fun,” Clooney says as he laughs with that familiar twinkle in his eye.
On 2nd thought, let’s close with something more important. He named his children (twins) “Alexander” and “Ella,” because “I did not want weird names for our kids. They are already going to have enough trouble, being the children of somebody famous and successful.”
Apparently in “real life” George does not want to burden other people. During the pandemic, he “stained” the entire interior and exterior of his house and all the furniture inside, installed chicken wire reinforcement around the “dog yard,” rewired his assistant’s sewing machine, did sewing of his children’s clothes and repairing of other clothing in the closets, and repaired his friend’s auto generator in the parking lot of a gas station.
He “shuns” the internet and does not “do” social media.
He writes and sends numerous letters by hand to his children, wife, and friends and has framed handwritten letters in reply from Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, and Walter Cronkite.
And now, “really last,” in 2013 Clooney reportedly gathered 14 of his closest friends and related to them after dinner that he was so thankful for all the things and trips and gatherings they had shared together and even had a map with pins marking many of their “shared” places. THEN, he told them to open the suitcases, which had been sitting by each all during the dinner.
$1,000,000.00 (one million dollars) in each one! The person who told this story said he told Clooney that he was not going to accept his, and George replied to the group, “If ------------- does not take his money, then none of you will get yours.”
The friend took his because he knew that there were several for whom the money meant “life-changing in a good way” to them. He then said he donated his to a charity.
Therefore, I now admit that several months ago, I would have answered “NO” to the question concerning whether George Clooney is special, but after reading and hearing different sides, I answer, “YES!”
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